hence (even when at their best estate, or in the very efflorescence of all their youthful ardour) would moderate; and our grief, free from the bitterness of dissatisfaction, would flow on in a current less deep and powerful. O they are not lost, though their sun has gone down while it is yet day. They have but set, to our apprehension, indeed, prematurely, beneath our horizon, to rise again bright planets in the hemisphere of celestial glory.

ness on their heads; and sorrow and sighing, and clouds and shadows, and storms and tempests, having for ever fled away, they shall abide under a cloudless sky, in regions of eternal bliss. In this land of their captivity they may hang their harps upon the willows, and, yielding to the sorrows which fill their hearts, forget to sing the Lord's song; but in that land of accomplished promise and finished hope, their harps shall be ever in their hands, and the high praises of God in their mouths, to fill with their transports of gratitude and joy the palace of their king and their God. If every step here is through a vale of tears, there it is through a land of pure delight. In the house of their Father above, they shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more; neither shall the sun light upon them, nor any heat. And if any recollection of former suffer

3. The happiness of which they shall participate. All the religious experience of earth affords but a faint emblem of the bliss of heaven. The delight that Christians now experience kindles into rapture at thought of the richer delight that awaits them above. Among the children of God in heaven (all happy) the degree of happiness may vary; for it depends upon the capacity of enjoyment|ings remain, it will serve only to enhance possessed by each, and this again upon improvement of character, and of talent, and of trust, and therefore they who have prepared most for heaven, will be most happy in heaven. Saints in heaven are perfectly happy, because perfectly holy. Here they taste of the streams that flow from the infinite fulness of their Father and their God; there they will have come to the fountain itself. Here they receive, now and then, a bunch of grapes from the better Canaan; there they will have full and free access to the tree of life that is in the paradise of God. Here they obtain an occasional glimpse through the entanglement of the wilderness, and through the mists and fogs that hang over Jordan, and see the green fields, and the golden harvests, that wave luxuriant and vast on the other side; there they will possess the vineyards and well-springs of a perpetual Canaan. Here they are sometimes revived by sweet odours, wafted over from the mountains of spices that lie on the other side the lions' dens and leopards, haunts, among which they at present pass; there, every peril is past, and having entered through the gates into the city, all is peace, triumph, and perfection. Here they have many a troubled, many a stormy, and many a cloudy day; there they shall have everlasting joy and glad

their enjoyments, and augment their wonder, as they view the intricate mazes through which divine wisdom conducted them. Our happiness will be made complete by beholding the brightness of the Father's glory, in the vision of which we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable; by the presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Yes, there we shall see Jesus--shall behold the God-man, our Friend, our Priest, our Sacrifice, our All. Then we shall love in return for all his infinite love; and bless and worship him with a growing adoration, and dilating gratitude, for ever and ever. It will, indeed, be heaven to see our Jesus' face! O the infinitude of our bliss! when we shall see Him as He is, and love with a passion like his! O that exquisiteness of joy!— those gusts of pure perennial bliss, which the saints of God will experience, in singing praises and songs of deliverance to God and the Lamb for ever! O what rapture to be engaged in penetrating the mysteries of Providence; in listening to the music of the spheres, and the jubilee of the universe! in gazing with untold ecstasy on the face of God and the Lamb, and deriving from him, who is the sea of light and love, fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore! "But eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it

entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath laid up for them that love him."

II. THE CONDUCT ENJOINED IN RELATION To THESE THINGS. We are told by the apostle that we should seek them.

1. This implies or supposes belief of them.-Let us attend for a moment to the evidence that proves the actual existence of a future state. Those who have just conceptions of the perfections of God, will admit the possibility of it. He who gives us existence on this side the grave, can give it on the other side. He who has bestowed life in time, can impart it through all coming eternity.

4. The friendships we shall share there. -Man is constituted to be happy in society. Place him in solitude, and however exciting and felicitous are his circumstances in other respects, he will wither and pine away. But above, we shall be with the many that shall come from the east, and west, and north, and south, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The entire heaven of angels, and the whole host of the redeemed, we shall Numerous considerations indicate a have sweet and improving fellowship high degree of probability concerning a with for ever! The wise and the good, future state. Every man has a power of the great and the pure, the benevolent and thinking and willing, of desiring and abactive from every region, will be our com- horring; feels that he possesses within panions and associates, with whom we himself a soul, (deathless life,) an active, shall live, and love, and know, and obey, conscious, immaterial principle or nature. through one eternally enduring day. Of And though this has its present residence all the afflictions to which we are liable, in the body, it is perfectly distinct and there is none so painful as the death of essentially different from the clay taberour friends. And, oh! what a consoling nacle in which it is enshrined, and which balm is the doctrine that we shall, in the is essential to its manifestation in the realms above, be restored to their fellow-present life, and therefore its existence ship. This doctrine is involved in many will not be involved or implicated in the passages of Scripture: in the account of fall of its tabernacle, any more than a sun the last judgment-in the language of beam is crushed by the fall of an old David on occasion of the death of his in-house through which it is passing. The fant child by Bathsheba-in the parable strong desire of immortality, too, is an of the rich man and Lazarus-in the con- argument for it. Why should God unisolation which our Saviour gives to the versally implant a desire he never meant penitent sinner on the cross- -in the as- to gratify? This desire shows design. surance administered by the apostle St. The present mode of divine government Paul to the Thessalonian believers, that indicates the same. The justice and wisthey should be his joy and crown of re-dom of the Governor are covered with joicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus dark and impenetrable clouds, if the hisChrist at his coming-and in the same tory of man is merely confined to the apostle forbidding them to sorrow for present world, and closes altogether with such as had fallen asleep as though they time; for vile men here are often exalted, had no hope of being united with them, and holy men are depressed. One event and of being together with the Lord-and often befalls opposite characters. The in the general use which the sacred wri- common consent of mankind is in favour ters make of the word sleep for death-a of it. Some kind of belief in A future simile which would be flagrantly incor- state, and in some sort of future happirect if our recollections, our friendships ness, is very general. Even in the naand affections, were not renewed in a fu-tural uninformed mind, there are strong ture state. And, in general, the same anticipations of futurity. And the idea doctrine is taught also through the whole of the savage, that after death he goes to book of the Revelation of St. John. Hap- some green and blooming island across py prospect, that exalts friendship into the deep, to dwell with the Great Spirit, religion! What blest society there will appears to us to be the remains of the inbe above! tuitive impression originally stamped on

the human mind, as an evidence of its the vast importance of these things might immortality. But why do I say that a lead to the conclusion, that the duty here future state of bliss is possible? Why do enjoined is not likely to be forgotten or I dwell on its probability? We are not neglected. We might imagine that all led to this conclusion as a mere matter of that was necessary on this subject, is just reasoning; as an affair of analogy; as a to convince of the importance of these thing to be inferred: I take up my Bible things, and then leave the mind to its and say, there is positive certainty of it, own natural sense of what is due to its -a certainty, drawn, not from the fair interests, in order to secure the proper operations of reason, but from the sure, line of conduct towards the things thus and strong, and steady lights of revela- exhibited. But how different all this is tion. The testimony of God in his word from what we know to be the fact. When clears away every doubt concerning it, we call to recollection the earthly bias and opens to us the realities of that eter- which men have taken, and the downward nal kingdom in which he reigns. The tendency by which they are, since the Scriptures amply unfold the doctrine of fall, characterized, it is proper to remind immortality, and show us the throne and them of the necessity of the course which judgment-seat of the Eternal; they dis- the apostle calls "looking at the things close to us, with awakening and irresisti- which are not seen and eternal; seeking ble emphasis and clearness, the mansions the things that are above." You may be of the blessed, and their dread alternative, exposed to the secularities of life, and the prison of the wicked. See this reve- unless you indulge and cultivate the uplation in the Old Testament. Enoch was ward tendency so emphatically expressed translated, that he should not see death, in the text, they will fix you down to the and was not found, for God took him. low level of earthly and every-day existThe Hebrew patriarchs desired a better ence. You must attend to the leading country. The patriarch of Uz knew that course of thought and inclination, by in his flesh he should see God. Moses which your mind is characterized. The had respect to the recompense of the re- thoughts must be turned in this lofty diward. David believed he should see rection :-I say thoughts, for it must not God's face in righteousness, awake up in be a thought about heaven now and then his likeness, and be satisfied. Daniel merely, with long and frightful intervals declares that they that sleep in the dust between, but toward the things above the shall awake and come forth. Isaiah an- attention must be much directed. We nounces the jubilee of the dead-the must feel that religion is the one main and morning of their manumission: "Awake essential article in the great business of and sing, ye that dwell in the dust." life, for although there is a time for every And another Old Testament oracle tri- thing, you are not to exclude religion from umphantly proclaims that "Death is swal- its pre-eminence; you are not to confine lowed up in victory." But the New Tes-it, as a sacred and hidden mystery, but to tament abounds in this class of evidence. be seen and meditated at certain occaThere, life and immortality are brought to meridian light, and stand confessed most vividly before us. There, indeed, from beginning to end, God hath promised eternal life. Matt. v. 8. Luke xii. 32. Matt. xxv. There are things above, then: to seek them, suppose that you have a belief of them; that you doubt not their existence, their reality, their certainty.

2. It implies that attention should be much directed towards them. They must be minded, as well as believed. The fact of

sional periods, but rather to diffuse it as a colouring through all the substance of life. Thus the patriarchs sought the things above,-of whose piety it is the highest eulogy to say, that "they declared plainly that they sought a better country," so fixed was their attention to sacred and heavenly things. Then let us thus seek them; by a constant and instantaneous religion seek the things that are above. To seek them must signify also that we are to,

3. Set our attachment upon them. Set

your affections on things above, it is added tal of the then greatest empire in the in the verse after the text. The import world. of this exhortation is, that we are to ad- So should we feel and act in reference mire and love them, as well as believe to the Jerusalem that is above; the new, and contemplate them. It may be ob- the heavenly Jerusalem. To the true bejected to this view, that the regard which liever this world is a desert, dry and barwe are now directing to be paid to things ren; and though there may be here and future, is inconsistent with the attention there a spot which seems to present invitwhich is due to the interests of the pre- ing verdure, and to court his stay, he sent life. It is, however, certain, that lingers not, but presses on, for he feels it Christianity enjoins no opposing duties, is not his rest, because it is polluted; and prescribes no incompatible precepts. he casts a solicitous look beyond its barWhilst we are commanded to render to ren sands, to the land of promise, where God the things that are God's, we are at are his home, his treasure, and his heart. the same time charged to render to Cæsar And his greatest burden of grief is, that the things that are Cæsar's. Whilst we the current of his affections should ever are directed to be fervent in spirit serving be interrupted, or that their fervour should the Lord, we are instructed also to be be repressed, for a single moment, by diligent in business. Can it be thought the trifles and vanities of the passing that he who is passing through a wilder-scene. Thus having his heart in heaven, ness, in a state of banishment from the scenes and fellowships which he holds most dear, should not often think with emotion of the delights, and securities, and sweet societies of a permanent and congenial home?

The history of the Jews, when in Babylon, is an illustration of the conduct enjoined in the text. Did they, whilst living in Babylon, surrounded with its absorbing bustle, and engaged in its active business, forget the land of Israel, and disregard it in their hearts? No; their recollection of it was most vivid and affectionate, deep and practical, ardent and constant; and is described in language beautiful, fervid, and impressive. Hear their affecting complaint, Ps.cxxxvii.

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his feet are ever moving thither; for when acting and enduring under the impression and expectation of heaven and heavenly things, his step is firm in the road that leads to things above. And when the affections are not only lifted up to, but set upon them, neither the length, nor the toil, nor the difficulty of the way can greatly impede the progress thither.

4. Diligent and persevering exertions, in order to obtain them; belief of the things that are above awakens attention to them; attention to those things gives rise to desires after the possession of them; and these desires, in their turn, give birth to exertions, in order to secure the attainment and possession of them. He who knows what the workings of affection toBy the rivers of Babylon there we sat wards any object are, knows well that his down; yea, we wept when we remembered exertions to secure and attain it are just Zion; we hanged our harps upon the wil-in proportion to the affection and desire lows." One of these captives is repre- with which he regards it. sented as expressing himself in the fol- Now all that we require in religion is, lowing words; "If I forget thee, oh Jeru- that you act consistently; that you regard salem, let my right hand forget her cun- the things proposed to you with an attenning; if I do not speak well of thee, let my tion corresponding to their suitability and tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I importance; and that you exert yourselves prefer not Jerusalem to my chief joy!" to attain them, with an ardour, and an asTheir hearts, then, were in Jerusalem, siduity, and a perseverance, proportionate though they sojourned in Babylon. The to their desirableness and value. Seeking dust and stones of Jerusalem, and the the things above, then, must imply the rubbish of its temple and its towers, was use of those means which are prescribed dearer to them than all the magnifi- in Scripture, and the observance of those cence and splendour of the greatest capi- I ordinances which have been instituted by

our Lord and Master, as helps on the way lively will be your apprehensions of the to heaven. And what are the means necessity of holiness, and the more strenuwhereby we are to hold fast, and hold ous and constant your pursuit of it:out, and hold on, till we obtain them? I" Not counting myself to have appreanswer, faith and prayer, accompanied by hended, this one thing I do, forgetting the reading of the word of God, and a those things which are behind, and reachdevout meditation thereon, together with ing forth unto those things which are bea diligent and earnest attention to the in- fore, I press toward the mark for the prize stitutions of grace and the ordinances of of the high calling of God in Christ religion. These are the means, the con- Jesus." scientious, diligent, and persevering use of which, followed and crowned with the blessing of God, will lead you through the low vale of humble love, to the para-bourhood of the text. Be persuaded to it, dise that is unfading and eternal. Yes,

III. SOME MOTIVES OR CONSIDERATIONS WHICH SHOULD IMPEL US TO THIS CONDUCT, especially those which lie in the neigh

1. From a regard to consistency of con

it is by faith only that we can walk in the duct.-Consistency is that agreement that way of life and peace-the road that leads to heaven and God. The shield of faith is that alone whereby we are able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one and to overcome the world. Its influence alone can sanctify the character and purify the heart, and give substance and evidence to things not seen and eternal-the things that are above. And it is only by prayer that faith can be kept alive and active, and become omnipotent, as it was with Moses; to whom what Aaron and Hur were, (holding up his hands when Israel fought against Amalek,) prayer is to faith. And the ordinances of religion stretch the arms of faith and fan the breath of prayer, and feed and inflame our desires and longings after the heavenly worship. It is in them that our characters receive their best impressions-their holiest influence. Faith will lead you to the ground of all your hope, the spring of all your joys; and prayer, in union with faith, will bring Christ down from heaven to be your staff of dependence and your rod of defence; for of yourselves you can do nothing. Faith will lead you to feed on the bread of God-the manna from above; and prayer will draw around you the atmosphere of heaven, out of which you will derive those influences of grace that shall strengthen and comfort you for the rest of the way. You may have to pass through tribulation, yea through much tribulation; but it is the way to the kingdom. The farther you advance on the road, the humbler will you become; and the nearer you come to heaven, the more VOL. I.-46

every part of a man's conduct should have to the character which he sustains and the profession that he makes. Sometimes it may be difficult to be consistent; but generally, from the very harmony that the part we have to perform has with our character and principles, there is a pleasure and satisfaction in its performance; for it holds true, that what symmetry is to the bodily frame, that consistency is to the moral character of an individual. And, whether from some original fitness in the nature of the things themselves, or from some arbitrary associations that take place in the mind, that which is consistent is not hard to be discovered. Even in the representation of ideal character this is studied and attended to; and whenever the laws of association are violently severed and broken, the effect is painful and disappointing. Fiction pleases, only so far as it corresponds with real character. Without this consistency there could be no uniformity in the human character; all would be unnatural, disjointed, harsh, injurious, unlovely; one great moral chaos; a sea of things mischievous, monstrous, and offensive. Soldiers running away in battle; judges violating those laws which they were sworn to maintain and defend; a man, distinguished by wisdom and prudence, erudition and sagacity, giving himself up to the most ridiculous, and absurd, and degrading follies; a man bowed down with a multitude of years and their accumulated infirmities, embarking in the most extensive, laborious, and speculative enterprises of worldly 2 H